Kind of like you said, it would seem to depend on where you live.

Are you expecting urban upheaval? Do you live in dense forests?

My Granddad grew up in Eastern Montana and talked to the old timers
who were the first to settle there. Few could afford or make use of
a shotgun or a pistol. Wide open prairies dictated a rifle if
they expected to hunt for food.

Locally a vigilante group went after some Indians in one of the
last battles between whites and natives. Hundreds of people on both sides.

The whites were easily run off and killed cause they came to the fight armed with old military revolvers and shotguns, while the Indians had repeating rifles.